Rapeseed processing in Germany increases significantly

Rapeseed processing in Germany rose considerably in the first four months of 2021 compared to the previous year. Domestic rapeseed accounted for a major share of the increase.

In the first four months of 2021, around 3.27 million metric tons of rapeseed was processed in Germany. This was up nearly 10 percent on the same period the previous year. One of the reasons was a rise in the use of rapeseed grown in Germany, which, according to calculations made by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), accounts for around 42 percent of the rapeseed volume processed in the current marketing year. Whereas in the first four months of last year, approximately 1.31 tons were explicitly identified as commodity from Germany, in the same period of 2021, the tonnage amounted to more than 1.50 million.

The actual volumes of rapeseed from Germany, however, cannot be determined accurately. They could be larger or smaller, because many processors report batches received from German suppliers as EU-quality commodity to the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (German Federal Office for Agriculture and Food / BLE), but these batches could actually be rapeseed grown in Germany or imports from neighboring countries.

In April, around 834,000 tons of rapeseed was processed in Germany. The oil mills had to draw on their stocks, because only 821,500 tons of rapeseed was delivered that month. Nevertheless, the amount of feedstock was significantly larger than the same month a year earlier, when the BLE reported 714,000 tons.

In the current marketing year, German oil mills have processed approximately 8.05 million tons of rapeseed, which is around 7 percent more than the previous year's 7.5 million tons.